George Barret, Sr.

George Barret (Senior)
Beeston Castle, Cheshire, c.1770
Born	George Barret Either 1728 or 1732 The Liberties, Dublin.
Died	1784 Paddington, London, England, UK
Nationality	Irish
Education	Robert West of Dublin
Known for	Landscpe paintings
Movement	Founding member of the Royal Academy
Patron(s)	Lord Powerscourt, William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland William Lock of Norbury Park, William Constable of Burton Constable.

George Barret Sr. RA (c. 1730 – 29 May 1784) was an Irish landscape artist who is best known for his Oil paintings, but also sometimes produced watercolours. He left Ireland in 1762 to establish himself as an artist in London and rapidly gained recognition as a leading artist of the period. He exhibited at the Society of Artists of Great Britain and was able to gain patronage from many leading art collectors. Barrett with other leading members left the Society in 1768 to found the Royal Academy, where he continued to exhibit until 1782. Barrett appears to have travelled extensively in England including the Lake District and the Isle of Wight, Wales, and Scotland to undertake commissions for his patrons, but he does not appear to have travelled abroad. Oil paintings of Tivoli in Italy have been attributed to him, but it is much more likely that they are the work of his son George Barret junior. Barret suffered from asthma and this caused him to move in 1772 to Westbourne Green, at the time a country village to the west of Paddington. While he earned considerable quantities of money from his paintings, he has been described as being ‘‘feckless’’ with money. He was helped in 1782 by Edmund Burke, with whom he had become friends when Burke attended Trinity College, Dublin. On Burke's recommendation he obtained the appointment of master painter of Chelsea Hospital, a post he held until his death in 1784. At the time of his death his widow and children were left destitute, but the Royal Academy granted her a pension of thirty pounds a year.

Born in Dublin, the son of a cloth merchant, some time between 1728 and 1732, Barret began his career apprenticed to a staymaker. By 1747 he had started learning to draw at Robert West’s academy at George’s Lane which was sponsored by Royal Dublin Society. After completing his studies he taught drawing at the Academy. He was a friend of Edmund Burke while Burke was an undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1757 Burke published A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, and the influence of Burke’s thinking can be detected in some of Barret’s early paintings, such as the Powerscourt Waterfall. A version of this painting in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool is said to have been painted for Edmund Burke. In Ireland Barret’s main patron was Edward Wingfield who in 1751 became Viscount Powerscourt. Wingfield owned Powerscourt House and extensive estates to the south of Dublin in County Wicklow. These included the scenic river Dargle with its craggy red rocks and impressive Powerscourt Waterfall that is the second highest in Ireland. Scenery on the Dargle often figures in Barret’s surviving oil paintings and he also painted at Avoca in the south of County Wicklow.